Pages

Friday, 31 January 2014

UK Charity PDSA (People's Dispensary for Sick Animals) has featured the above picture on its Facebook page today.

Is it to illustrate the horrors of being an extreme brachycephalic breed like this pug? (After all the PDSA has ruled recently that it will no longer offer free/subsidised treatment to more than one purebred dog per household given the increased veterinary costs associated with pedigree dogs).

Or is it, perhaps, to spell out the horrors of dogs overheating in cars on a sunny day?

Or even to point out the dangers of stenotic nares (very narrow nostrils)?

1/2/14: The PDSA has now removed the photo from its Facebook page. Response to my query from Head of PR Mary Bawn: "Dear Jemima. Apologies it was an error and has been removed. Thank you for flagging. Best wishes, Mary"

Tuesday, 14 January 2014

Unthinking prejudice against crossbreed dogs always makes my hackles rise, and there was a bad case of it last week in the Huffington Post - a piece written by Jody Thompson.

Thompson referred to "designer dogs" as "just mongrels", said that it was a terrible idea to cross breeds such as the Labrador and Poodle and stated categorically that such crosses were no healthier than purebred dogs. She also advised people that if they didn't want to get a rescue dog, they should go to a Kennel Club breeder.

Not surprisingly, a few Doodle owners took exception in the Comments section and I whizzed off an email to the Huff Post to ask if they'd like a "counter". The answer was yes, they'd be more than happy to consider a rebuttal.

So I wrote it and sent it to them over the weekend. But it turns out that Jody Thompson is the Huff Post UK's Blog Editor and as such has the say-so on whether or not to accept my piece.

This morning, she got back to me and turned it down, saying I had twisted and misinterpreted what she'd written. Ms Thompson says she is only interested in the piece if I take out the bits criticising her (she didn't think they were fair) and make it a more general article in defence of crossbreeds.

I replied:

"I think you’re taking this a little too personally.

"I have been a journalist for 30 years. I have written for all the UK nationals and been a commissioning editor for two of them. Alternative views are the lifeblood of the free media because they generate interest and debate. Of course, I shouldn’t have to tell you that.

"Very unsettled to learn that the Huff Post censors in this way ie. employed editors who turn down material because they can’t tolerate an alternative view to their own. I mean, really, what’s the worst that can happen? Some people will agree with you; some people will agree with me. Don’t think the world will end.

"Your piece was on an area I specialise in and the comments to your piece make it clear that others interpreted it exactly the same way I have done. In other words, it is a fair challenge."

"I’ll publish both pieces side by side on my blog (two million pageviews by the way…).Let’s see what my readers think."

So here we go. First, you'll need to pop over to Huff Post for Thompson's article, which you can find here.

Read it?

Here's my counter.. let me know what you think. I can take it on the chin, promise...

Six years ago, my documentary Pedigree Dogs Exposed revealed the horrifying levels of
deformity and disease in purebred dogs. The cause? A century of inbreeding and
pursuit of show-ring ribbons under the auspices of a Kennel Club stuck largely
in the scientific dark ages.

We showed gasping Pugs, Bulldogs that
couldn’t mate or give birth naturally, show-bred German Shepherds dragging
wobbly back-ends, and Cavalier King Charles Spaniels screaming in agony because
their skulls were too small for their brains.

The film had an enormous impact. The BBC
pulled out of broadcasting the Kennel Club’s flagship show, Crufts (after 42
years). Crufts also lost its main sponsor, Pedigree. Then the veterinary
profession, welfare organisations and three independent reports backed the
film’s findings. The Kennel Club, finally, was forced to act to clean up
dog-breeding.

The film is often charged with sending
puppy-buyers in their droves to buy “designer dogs” -Labradoodles, Cockapoos and a host of other
combinations often being sold under the “hybrid vigour” banner.There is nothing more likely to give a
purebred dog breeder the vapours than to tell them how much some of these pups
fetch. How very dare someone just chuck a Pug in with a Beagle and cop £800 or
more for the resulting mongrel “Puggle”.

Yep, you’re allowed to charge money for
a pedigree dog. But, the moment you take money for a deliberately-bred mutt you
are by default morally and ethically bankrupt, however good a breeder you are;
however healthy and personable the dogs themselves turn out to be.

.Jody Thompson, whose family owned a
purebred Golden Retriever, joined in on the designer dog bashing in the Huff
Post this week.She turned a snooty nose up at the “Dorkie” (Dachshund x Yorkie) she met on the
train and advised everyone that if they could not be persuaded to take on a
rescue dog they should go to a nice Kennel Club breeder. The message was clear
- purebred is good; these half-caste crossbreeds and mongrels are inferior, not
worthy - "...why even bother with a 'sort-of' dog," she wrote.

I hope
Thompson is aware of what she’s buying into here.The reason purebred dog breeders hate
designer dogs so much is because it undermines what they do... the belief, very
deeply entrenched, that purebred dogs are inherently superior to mutts; that
show-ring success and a pedigree as long as your arm somehow mitigate for trapping
the poor creatures in tiny gene pools polluted by ever-spiralling rates of
dysfunction and disease.

And if all this talk of purity and
innate superiority is beginning to make you feel rather uncomfortable, you have
a reason to be. It is well documented by canine historians that Kennel Club
breeding as we know it developed alongside the eugenics movement.

Purebred dog breeders also love to tell
you how combining two breeds will result “in the worst of both”.This makes little sense scientifically. Of course you can get some strange-looking
results from crossbreeding, but on the whole Nature is a great moderator. A
“dorkie”, or any other designer crossbreed, is likely to be a half-way house
between its two parent breeds.

A “dorkie” won’t have as long a back as
a Dachshund (something which contributes to a 25 per cent incidence of back
disease in Dachshunds) and it will be longer-muzzledand have a bigger mouth than a Yorkshire
Terrier, reducing the risk of the often severe peridontal problems that blight
Yorkies.

A first generation cross of these two
breeds is likely to suffer from fewer single-gene disorders, too. Both breeds
can suffer from eye problems - but they’re different ones caused by different
recessive mutations. For the pups to be affected, both parents have to pass
down the same mutation; much less likely if they are different breeds.

In common with all crossbreed dogs,
Dorkies are also statistically likely to live longer - a year or more extra on
average (Longevity and mortality of
owned dogs in England - O’Neill et al, Veterinary Journal, December
2013). This is good evidence of the
hybrid vigour enjoyed by crossbreeds and many studies confirm it.

Ironically, purebred dog breeders deny
the science while enjoying the benefits of it on their plates. Your morning toast? Very
likely to be bread made with hybrid wheat. Your steak for supper? It may say
Aberdeen Angus on the packet, but it only has to be 60 per cent purebred to be
allowed to use the moniker. Same goes for eggs, chickens, corn-on-the cob and
lots of other types of food.

The reason farmers use crosses is because the
wheat grows stronger, the maize grows sweeter, the poultry thrives better and
the cattle grow bigger. Indeed, the hybrid vigour so dismissed by dog breeders
is one of the things keeping our farming industry afloat (if barely). That’s
not to say that farmers don’t maintain purebred lines too – they do. But it’s
often a more expensive business because the yield is less; fertility often
diminished.

Insurance company data also
confirms the crossbreed health benefit. Most charge lower premiums for crosses
and mixed breeds. This isn’t because they’re “anti-pedigree” – an accusation
often levied at anyone who dares sing the health-merits of the average mutt.
Nope, it’s the financial bottom-line that cuts the ice with the actuaries.
They’ve calculated the risks by looking at their data (ie claim history) and
priced their premiums accordingly.

And yet despite all this, Jody
Thompson berates designer dogs because they are “fashionable”, apparently
unaware that the most currently-fashionable dogs are purebred Pugs, Bulldogs
and French Bulldogs - dogs with faces so flat and nostrils often so pinched
that many spend their whole lives in a state of oxygen deprivation.

Worse, Thompson urges would-be
buyers to eschew designer dogs (“just mongrels” as she calls them) and go to a
Kennel Club breeder of purebred dogs for their puppy.

But the issue here is not whether a
dog is purebred or crossbreed. This is a question of responsible breeding
independent of a dog’s genetic provenance.

Are there shocking breeders of “designer”
dogs? Yes.

Do they make exaggerated claims about their health, happiness or
hypoallergenic properties of their dogs? Absolutely.

But the same appliesin purebred dog breeding too. Worse, the
latter is given a veneer of respectability by an organisation that presents
itself as a welfare organisation when it is actually nothing of the sort. The
Kennel Club is a trade association; the equivalent of the Tobacco Manufacturers
Association; there to defend the breeders’ not the dogs’ best interests.

Certainly, a Kennel Club pedigree
certificate is no guarantee of anything - over 80 per cent of licensed volume breeders (puppy farms) in Wales register at least some of their dogs with the Kennel Club and there
are no health-test requirements for the majority of breeders.Even the KC’s Assured Breeder Scheme,
although better than it was, has holes in it.There are breeders within it still indulging in the kind of inbreeding
that would make your hair frizz and few mandatory health tests; none at all for
some of the most blighted breeds.

Dogs are amazing creatures. I have
nine sitting here with me as I write this - a mix of purebredand crossbreeds; loved and treasured equally;
none better nor worse than the other.The difference? I know the Flatcoated Retriever at my side has a 50 per
cent chance of being dead from cancer by the age of nine (and many of them die
long before that).The mutts? They might
live to 15 or they could be dead at four. Their muttness does not make them
immune to illness.But at least I
don’t have to experience the cold curl of dread that I feel every time I look into a Flatcoat's eyes.

Despite popular perception, I am a
huge fan in principal of the selective breeding that has produced the
extraordinary variety ofsize, colour
and ability we see in our dog breeds.Watch a Saluki run, a collie gather sheep, a spaniel bust a
drug-smuggler or a Golden Retriever guide the blind and it is surely hard for
anyone’s heart to not sing.

It’s just that we have tobreed ‘em smarter - and that means learning
from, not trashing, mutts.In
particular, we need to drop the “purity at all costs” meme and recognise
prejudice towards mutts for what is is: a distasteful legacy from the early
20th century that has no place in a science-savvy, welfare-conscious society.

Wednesday, 1 January 2014

First for buying a Bulldog. Second, for buying another one. Third, for not recognising that one of them is in trouble.

Given how dangerous it is to hurtle - pointlessly if lucratively - round a track at 200mph, I guess it's probably better to not think about stuff much. But Lewis Hamilton's comments on Instagram two days ago display breathtaking ignorance.

On a snowy New Year break with his Bulldogs Roscoe and Coco, the Formula 1 driver wrote:

"Today, I went hiking up the mountain. Thought I'd take the dogs. Roscoe was fine but Coco, she walks about 20 meters & sits down. She doesn't want to go anywhere unless she's carried. Lazy ass bulldog Lol so I put her in my backpack.....she literally snored the whole way up!!'

Mr Hamilton.... Coco is less than a year old. No dog of that age is ever "lazy". Ever. And that snoring? It isn't snoring. She can't bloody breathe.

A pound to a dollar, Coco will be at the vets for a soft palate resection within the year.

Hamilton's other Bulldog, 14-month-old Roscoe looks quite the athlete body-wise - slim and fit and relatively long-legged. There are very few pix of him gasping either - good to see.

Roscoe

Nevertheless, four months ago, Roscoe almost died from pneumonia a breed-related problem that is a direct result of the Bulldog's impaired respiratory system.

He recovered, but will never overcome the basic handicap of being born a Bulldog - something that Hamilton clearly thinks is cute and funny. Have a look at this:

SUBSCRIBE TO PDE - THE BLOG

Search This Blog

About Me

I grew up with pedigree dogs - English Setters, Great Danes, Labradors and, most recently, Flatcoated Retrievers. Today, I share my home with an assortment of dogs, purebred and mutts. In 2008, I directed Pedigree Dogs Exposed, a BBC documentary which uncovered the extent of health and welfare problems in pedigree dogs. The film has now been shown in more than 20 countries. Campaigning for improved purebred dog health is now a great passion - one fuelled by the fear that those who currently view themselves as the guardians of pedigree dogs are, often unwittingly, the agents of their demise.
My mission, then, is to continue to highlight where things have gone wrong and to encourage breeders and Kennel Clubs to embrace reform - particularly when it comes to harmful phenotypes and inbreeding.